A water faucet cartridge contains operating parts including means for the control of water flow and handling members and is intended to be inserted in a removable and leak-proof fashion in the cavity of a water faucet body connected to pipes. A cartridge permits easy and rapid replacement of operating parts when they have broken or when they have become worn out. The cartridge has a packing which, when the cartridge is inserted into the body of the faucet, establishes a sealing hold with respect to the bottom of the cavity of the faucet body. The plug also establishes a sealing hold with respect to an internal member that is a part of the means which control the water flow such as, for example, a fixed plate made of hard material which cooperates with a mobile plate that is operated by the handling members.
These seals have been conventionally established by packings which extend through the plug and press against the bottom of the cavity of the faucet body against the fixed plate (a known and conventional arrangement shown schematically in FIG. 1 of the drawings). This arrangement had the disadvantage that the contact pressure of the packing was the same against the bottom of the cavity of the faucet body and against the fixed plate. This meant that in many cases an excessive mounting compression had to be applied to the fixed plate, said excessive compression obstructing the operation of the faucet.
This is why the use of two separate packings installed on both sides of the plug was resorted to. One packing acts against the bottom of the faucet body, while the other packing acts against the fixed plate. This makes it possible to apply different compressions to the two packings (a known and conventional arrangement illustrated schematically in FIG. 2 of the drawings). However, it is easy to see that similar packings lodged in appropriate seats of the plug can be deformed or can be expelled from their seats under high pressures or pressure surges such as arise when the faucet is in operation. To prevent this disadvantage elastomers that are relatively rigid are used for packings, and relatively high mounting compressions are used on the packings. Both of these factors impede the performance of the faucet. Provision for special configurations of the seats that receive the packings can be made but these are expensive and are not always effective.
Another serious problem associated with these packings can be observed when a cartridge is assembled by means of automatic equipment, as is now customary. The grasp and insertion of the packings in their seats call for appropriate work stations and constitute an operation that is very delicate due to the deformability of the packings and the rather poor precision of their dimensions. Because of this packings rather frequently are improperly installed. This results in the equipment coming to a halt and manual action being required to remove the defective cartridges. Furthermore, the packings that are intended for the outside of the plug must be inserted manually after the completion of the cartridge, otherwise they would become detached during the assembly operations. These outside packings are also frequently separated from the finished cartridge during transport.
One object of this invention is to provide a plug with retaining packings for a faucet cartridge which, in addition to permitting the application of different assembly compressions on the two sides of the plug, also ensures that the packings cannot be deformed or expelled from their seats even under maximum pressures or foreseeable pressure surges, and to substantially facilitate the mounting of the cartridge by automatic equipment.